2.35 – Delegate

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Maple and Leon's talk dragged through the night. She was happy to be having it, yes, but her eyelids drooped and she couldn't stop yawning. Leon finally showed mercy after her fifth yawn.

"Alright, I've got just about everything we need ironed out. It'll be a fully worker-owned 'co-op' like you described, or guild as we call it, with the steward voted on by everyone with a member share. Becoming a member will cost 10 gold, earnable through labor or production, and members will receive yearly dividends from a pool based on a contribution percentage. Additional shares can't be bought, but members with more gold to offer can do so by loaning the money to the guild in return for a modest interest rate. Leaving will start a process of withdrawing their initial fee and any remaining dividends. You, Maple, will have your fee waived and start in the CEO position, or guildmistress, and be secure there for six months. After that you're as beholden as anyone else to the member election."

He'd gone over all of this and more several times by now. The terminology was a trap she kept falling into. She'd wanted to be the CEO, but they didn't have that here, so she'd settled on letting him call her the guildmistress.

Even that had been a fight, with him wanting to call her the 'steward' since it would later be decided by election. She argued that as the steward she could decide to be called anything she wanted, and eventually he relented.

Maple wiped her eyes.

"Right."

"I've already said it, but you won't be rich at the end of this, you know that right? It's noble, but if you're voted out or ever decide to leave, there won't be a company to sell or anything besides the 10 gold fee and a portion of the profit dividend it's earned by then, if any."

Maple nodded.

"I know. I wouldn't be able to do it without everyone else anyway, so..."

All she'd really done was have the initiative to even suggest the idea. Betty was much closer to the milkmaids and the one organizing them, and Mirkham was joining more for them than for her. She supposed someone needed to handle the paperwork and actually run everything though.

Well, the paperwork was Leon's job now.

Maple chuckled while he shuffled papers around, wrapping up.

"I guess I created a job for myself at least."

"That you have. Well I'll let you get to bed. I assume you were planning on staying here for the rest of the night? The paperwork will take me a day to get in order and then you'll need to sign a few things before we file it. One gold coin would cover my fee and any filing fees."

"Yeah, I suppose I'll join them upstairs and see what Em wanted to do. Sounds good though, thank you so much!"

Maple got up, happy to finally be done. What a productive night. Ambushing Anemone at her home had ended up working out far better than expected.

All kinds of imagery came to mind on the way up the stairs to Anemone's room, but the scene she actually found was serene.

Anemone was on her back, naked, and snoring loudly with her arms wrapped tight around Emma, who was between her legs and returning the embrace with a full-body blanket of herself. They looked so peaceful.

Maple smiled, keeping her voice a low whisper.

"Busted!"

Emma turned her head unnaturally all the way around to greet Maple with a sleepy smile. They must have really gone at it, if even Emma was tired.

"Let me get in on that, I'm sooo tired."

Emma made room for her to join them in the cuddle puddle. Maple tried her best not to wake Anemone, but as soon as she lay down, Anemone's arm wrapped around her and pulled her close. Maple felt a pinch and softly yelped.

"Ow, that's my wing."

Anemone pouted as they readjusted to get comfortable.

"Sorry. But it sure took you long enough! What were you even doing with my brother for so long?"

Maple sighed. This girl.

"Paperwork. For the dairy. It's all coming together, Em. I'll tell you more about it tomorrow."

Her tone brightened as she switched to sharing the good news with Emma. Anemone made a skeptical hmm, but ultimately closed her eyes to go back to sleep. Maple quickly joined her.

[Entrepreneur Level 1!]

[Skill Obtained: Delegate]

Maple inhaled sharply, suddenly awake, and was relieved that the new class wasn't something like [Exhibitionist] at least. The Skill felt a little passive-aggressive, though, as if delegating was all she did.

They'd gotten a good nap in. Then, the sun was shining through the blinds and Leon was knocking on the door to gently ask if anyone wanted breakfast. Partly, Maple suspected, as a measure to at least keep them from corrupting his sister-in-law's sleep schedule any further.

Maple groaned and got half-way through shouting 'no thank you', but Emma shot up with her tongue dangling out the side of her mouth and patted her tummy, and Maple had to quickly amend her response.

"Um, that would be nice actually! We'll be down in a few minutes."

Leon called back through the door.

"Anemone as well?"

She was still snoring, with a bit of drool sliding down her chin. Maple hesitated and did some quick math: would receiving breakfast from her friend-with-benefits' brother-in-law be more or less awkward with Anemone there?

She had made dinner quite awkward. It'd been the most awkward dinner of Maple's life, in fact. But they weren't even Leon's guests, so wouldn't it be rude to accept breakfast from him and not wake Anemone?

"Um..."

Maple was too sleep deprived for this. Luckily, Leon called through the door again.

"If she's still sleeping then just you two could come down for breakfast."

"Oh okay, yeah she's still asleep. I'll be down with Emma!"

That solved that.

They left the sleeping Anemone and headed down the stairs. Maple scratched at her wing, bending over and moving her arms at awkward angles behind herself to reach it. It felt like the spot that was pinched last night.

"I hope I didn't lose any feathers."

It was hard to imagine actually flying in the future, but she already felt possessive of her feathers in the same way that having hair plucked out would be unfortunate even if it did regrow at the exhilarating pace of half an inch per month. How long would feathers take?

Emma shrugged and helped her scratch, which felt pretty good. She really did have a new erogenous zone now, or several, given that each feather could somehow feel pleasure.

"Thanks cutie. Oh well, I'm sure it's fine."

Emma nodded and gave her a reassuring peck on the cheek, setting Maple's heart at ease.

Breakfast with Leon ended up being normal. He read a newspaper and they made a bit of small talk about the future. He had his own things to do today, and Maple was to go see him tomorrow to finalize things for the dairy.

When she finished eating, Emma cleaned Maple's plate for her and stacked it on top of her own. They were polite guests, if nothing else. Maple sipped her orange juice.

"Hmm, I guess I'll try to sell that milk today. Then there's that impostor to deal with...Oh, is there like somewhere I could rent a wagon or something? Or maybe just buy one, I guess."

They had their first batch of deliveries to do. Soon, there'd be even more, but she didn't even have a regular customer base yet so today she'd basically be going door to door.

Leon drank from his own mug before replying.

"Impostor? But yeah, you'll probably want to buy a cart or three if you plan on doing the deliveries in-house. Or you could contract a delivery company, but you would need a route set ahead of time, obviously."

Maple meant the 'Tree of Maple' thing she'd seen on that poster in the Sybrarium. She hadn't forgotten about that, and the event was being held this evening. She'd be going there herself to see what was what, but didn't want to involve Leon with that so brushed past it.

"Right. I still need to establish a customer base. I did get the [Entrepreneur] class this morning, though, and uh, [Delegate]. Can I try it out on you?"

"You didn't have a business class already? Sure, go ahead."

Maple focused and used [Delegate] on Leon. Immediately, she felt a mental task list appear with one entry for Leon: finish the dairy paperwork. It felt like she'd be able to know automatically once he finished.

"Um, did you feel anything from that?"

"Yeah, it's like having a constant task reminder in my head. It's a little distracting, actually, if you wouldn't mind removing it? I think I could remove it myself if I truly wanted it gone though, for what it's worth."

That was good to know. Maple removed it and pursed her lips.

"Well I guess that's kinda useless."

Emma waved a hand and gestured for Maple to do her next. Maple chuckled and thought for a second.

"Alright cutie, how about this? Get [Delegated]!"

Emma's face lit up when she saw what the task was. She leaned over and gave Maple a big smooch on the cheek.

Maple got the mental notification that Emma's task was complete, like a little 'ding' in her head.

"Hey that's pretty satisfying."

Emma nodded and went in for another smooch, this time on the lips. Maple laughed and pulled away.

"I meant the Skill, silly. That too, though."

Maple rubbed Emma's head adoringly. Her 'hair' always felt like thick slippery noodles between her fingers. The PDA was a little embarrassing, but Leon didn't seem to mind. He nodded to Maple.

"It could be pretty useful if you'll be managing a lot of people. Or if you ever get an assistant. You should test its range and other limits when you get a chance. I don't imagine it'll just act like free telepathy."

"Oh, true. I should do that."

She could already tell that Thera was too far away to give a task to. Anemone, however, she gave the task 'to wake up'. It remained in Maple's mind unfulfilled, so she must still be asleep. That was an interesting exploit, although overall the Skill seemed a bit lacking.

Leon stood and pushed his chair in.

"Anyway, I've gotta get going. I'll trust you two to see yourselves out whenever, just lock the door behind you please."

"Oh okay, thanks for breakfast! And for letting us stay the night. And uh, for the dairy stuff."

Emma slapped her belly and grinned, showing her own gratitude. Leon answered while putting some dishes away.

"You're both welcome. I should have your paperwork ready to file by around lunchtime tomorrow. Just come by my office."

He'd given her the directions earlier. Maple nodded and then was left to strategize with Emma. Something had been bugging her since their late night excursion.

"So..."

Maple gently poked Emma. Emma responded by squishing herself against her, then wrapping her in a hug.

"So..."

Maple repeated herself with emphasis, and Emma pulled back, cocking her head to the side. Maple looked down and away before finally saying it.

"So, since when could you make such detailed sounds?"

Emma's face froze. She didn't move at all for a few seconds. Eventually, she pulled out her chalkboard.

For a while now. Got a Skill.

Maple took her time reading, and her time responding. She'd figured as much already.

"Oh. Why didn't you tell me?"

Emma shrugged, then went for the chalk.

Not a big deal.

"Right, okay. Can you talk now too? I'm just wondering, is all."

Emma's body was much more rigid than usual. She made a so-so gesture with her hand and shrugged. Maple took that as a yes, with the caveat that she didn't want to for some reason.

"It's fine if you don't want to speak, cutie, I just don't understand why you didn't tell me you leveled? We're partners, you know? I want to be kept in the loop..."

Emma tried to sooth Maple by placing a hand on her head. She began writing with a guilty look on her face.

Can talk, but don't have a voice that's mine. Wanted to surprise you when I was ready, but—

The message ended there, her hand trembling. Maple pulled her into a hug.

"Of course that's fine. I was just worried you weren't telling me things. You know I don't care whether you want to talk, or write, or just wave about like a cutie, right?"

Emma seemed to relax a little, and Maple felt her nod against her chest. They stayed like that a while, and then she pulled back to write more.

[Mimic Life-form] helped me copy sounds once I got the basics down. I can sound like you, or Bailey, or animals, but I don't know what I sound like.

She made a sad face while Maple read. When she finished, Maple hugged her again.

"That's okay, cutie. I'm sure you'll find your voice eventually."

Maple tried, but couldn't think of any good advice. She'd never really had to think about her voice; she just sounded the way she did and that was that.

The hug seemed to help anyway, and soon they were both ready to get the day started.